Discovering Buddhism - Presenting the Path (20 October 2007)

0:03 Oh, it looks like we're gaining another one. Report an error in the passage at 0:03 Highlight the passage at 0:03

0:13 You can actually get rid of that empty sound file, too. Report an error in the passage at 0:13 Highlight the passage at 0:13

0:19 That one on top is just a blank sound file. It's not to do with anything at this point. Oh, never mind. Just leave it. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 0:19 Highlight the passage at 0:19

0:30 Hey, come on in, Dean. Report an error in the passage at 0:30 Highlight the passage at 0:30

0:42 We lost the little clippy thing. Oh, well. Report an error in the passage at 0:42 Highlight the passage at 0:42

0:49 I don't move the way Rubina does. Actually, I'm not moving much at all today. Report an error in the passage at 0:49 Highlight the passage at 0:49

1:01 I think this sort of just keeps it in case you... We Report an error in the passage at 1:01 Highlight the passage at 1:01

1:25 are here. Thanks, you guys, for being flexible and being able to come in. I'm sorry for the ones who couldn't come, because I know, especially Jeff was so sad he couldn't come today. So we'll make sure to dedicate this class to Jeff. Report an error in the passage at 1:25 Highlight the passage at 1:25

1:46 Thanks, Haley. Report an error in the passage at 1:46 Highlight the passage at 1:46

1:51 So we're actually going to start with a little meditation instead of just one on the breath. We'll start with one on the breath just to calm our minds. Report an error in the passage at 1:51 Highlight the passage at 1:51

1:59 And then we'll actually do a little meditation to set the mood. So you start again with finding your posture, moving away from the back of the chair, funeral chair, and having your feet on the ground. Report an error in the passage at 1:59 Highlight the passage at 1:59

2:18 And whether you're on a cushion or a chair, having your back extended, imagining sort of an invisible line going up the crown, up and out the crown of your head, your shoulders. If you're holding tension in your shoulders, you might roll them a few times and then just relax them, keep them level and a little bit back. Report an error in the passage at 2:18 Highlight the passage at 2:18

2:47 Your hands in your lap, right over left, thumbs touching lightly or on your knees. Report an error in the passage at 2:47 Highlight the passage at 2:47

3:02 Your eyes can be open and unfocused or lightly closed, gazing off the tip of your nose if you have them open. Report an error in the passage at 3:02 Highlight the passage at 3:02

3:14 Chin can be slightly tucked, which opens the back of your neck. Report an error in the passage at 3:14 Highlight the passage at 3:14

3:27 The roof of your mouth behind your front teeth but not touching, which keeps your mouth moist without having to swallow so much. And Report an error in the passage at 3:27 Highlight the passage at 3:27

3:48 your final point is your breathing should just be relaxed and natural and forced in any way. Report an error in the passage at 3:48 Highlight the passage at 3:48

4:11 You start with some nice deep cleansing breaths, letting go of whatever it's taken for you to get here this morning. Public transportation or driving, parking, looking for parking. Report an error in the passage at 4:11 Highlight the passage at 4:11

4:35 Any tension in the morning or any plans for the afternoon. Report an error in the passage at 4:35 Highlight the passage at 4:35

4:42 And just imagine each breath allowing you to become more and more present in the room. And Report an error in the passage at 4:42 Highlight the passage at 4:42

4:51 each out breath letting go of whatever might keep you from being here. Report an error in the passage at 4:51 Highlight the passage at 4:51

5:18 We'll just start with a few rounds of 10. So just try focusing your mind on your breath, whatever level works for you. Abdomen, chest, and nostrils. Report an error in the passage at 5:18 Highlight the passage at 5:18

5:33 And just repeatedly bringing your focus and concentration back to the object every time you get distracted by noises or thoughts, images, memories, plans. Report an error in the passage at 5:33 Highlight the passage at 5:33

5:50 And just patiently placing it back on the object. Calm Report an error in the passage at 5:50 Highlight the passage at 5:50

· · · silence, 3 minutes

8:55 down a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 8:55 Highlight the passage at 8:55

9:00 Use it. Report an error in the passage at 9:00 Highlight the passage at 9:00

9:08 Start probing with it. So you can think first about your body. And think about all the different parts of your body. Your arms and legs. Report an error in the passage at 9:08 Highlight the passage at 9:08

9:26 Your blood. Bones. Nerves and muscles. Report an error in the passage at 9:26 Highlight the passage at 9:26

9:36 Think about the nature of those things, what they're made of, Report an error in the passage at 9:36 Highlight the passage at 9:36

9:43 their substance and texture, Report an error in the passage at 9:43 Highlight the passage at 9:43

9:58 color, Report an error in the passage at 9:58 Highlight the passage at 9:58

10:02 aware of your body at work, Report an error in the passage at 10:02 Highlight the passage at 10:02

10:07 all the movement that's going on in every moment, Report an error in the passage at 10:07 Highlight the passage at 10:07

10:19 the flow of your breath, Report an error in the passage at 10:19 Highlight the passage at 10:19

10:24 beating of your heart, flow of your blood and energy of your nerve impulses. Now Report an error in the passage at 10:24 Highlight the passage at 10:24

10:51 move down another level and think about the cellular structure. All those things we just talked about are all made of cells. Report an error in the passage at 10:51 Highlight the passage at 10:51

11:03 Moving around, reproducing, dying, disintegrating. It's Report an error in the passage at 11:03 Highlight the passage at 11:03

11:11 all very much alive, just Report an error in the passage at 11:11 Highlight the passage at 11:11

11:22 in every moment. Report an error in the passage at 11:22 Highlight the passage at 11:22

11:37 And think about your mind. It's also composed of countless parts, Report an error in the passage at 11:37 Highlight the passage at 11:37

11:46 thoughts, perceptions, feelings, one after another, ceaselessly. Report an error in the passage at 11:46 Highlight the passage at 11:46

11:58 Just observe this. New thoughts, ideas, perceptions of sound, perception of feeling happening all the time. Report an error in the passage at 11:58 Highlight the passage at 11:58

12:15 Seemingly random memories popping up. Report an error in the passage at 12:15 Highlight the passage at 12:15

12:25 It's like your mind is this river of all these different mental activities. Maybe Report an error in the passage at 12:25 Highlight the passage at 12:25

12:52 you never thought of these as parts to your mind, but that's what the Buddha observed. Report an error in the passage at 12:52 Highlight the passage at 12:52

13:08 Turn your attention to the outer world, the world outside of your body and mind. Slowly increase your awareness to include your immediate surroundings, this room, your seat, the walls and ceiling, the tankas. Report an error in the passage at 13:08 Highlight the passage at 13:08

13:31 All the space around you and the objects filling it. Report an error in the passage at 13:31 Highlight the passage at 13:31

13:37 And think about the fact that each of these, even though they seem solid and static, they're also made up of little tiny particles coming into being and moving out of existence. Report an error in the passage at 13:37 Highlight the passage at 13:37

13:55 They're also completely impermanent. Report an error in the passage at 13:55 Highlight the passage at 13:55

14:13 Even the solid floor, Report an error in the passage at 14:13 Highlight the passage at 14:13

14:18 the wood, the foundation. Allow your awareness to even think about this building that seems so solid and strong. Report an error in the passage at 14:18 Highlight the passage at 14:18

14:39 In the street outside, all the vehicles on the street, Report an error in the passage at 14:39 Highlight the passage at 14:39

14:48 all the buildings near us, all of them are completely impermanent, changing moment by moment. All Report an error in the passage at 14:48 Highlight the passage at 14:48

15:07 the people driving them, the animals, also made up of cells coming into and going out of being. Report an error in the passage at 15:07 Highlight the passage at 15:07

15:20 Tiny, subtle moments of impermanence happening all around us. Report an error in the passage at 15:20 Highlight the passage at 15:20

15:33 Think about the earth itself under these streets, under this city, under this country. The mountains, the Report an error in the passage at 15:33 Highlight the passage at 15:33

15:51 ocean itself, Report an error in the passage at 15:51 Highlight the passage at 15:51

16:06 constant movement, change. Report an error in the passage at 16:06 Highlight the passage at 16:06

16:12 Nothing is static, solid and impermanent the way it appears. Report an error in the passage at 16:12 Highlight the passage at 16:12

16:22 Everything is constantly changing. As Report an error in the passage at 16:22 Highlight the passage at 16:22

16:35 far as your mind goes, whatever is in it, whatever beings, objects, thoughts, completely impermanent. It's Report an error in the passage at 16:35 Highlight the passage at 16:35

16:53 the same from moment to moment. Report an error in the passage at 16:53 Highlight the passage at 16:53

17:12 If we can really understand how impermanent things are. Report an error in the passage at 17:12 Highlight the passage at 17:12

17:20 We can see how unrealistic it is to cling to things as though they're permanent. Report an error in the passage at 17:20 Highlight the passage at 17:20

17:28 Whatever positive experiences we have will change. Whatever negative experiences we have will also change. Report an error in the passage at 17:28 Highlight the passage at 17:28

17:50 It's a way of understanding that things don't exist the way they appear to us to exist. So even though impermanence is an emptiness, it's a step towards it. Report an error in the passage at 17:50 Highlight the passage at 17:50

18:03 It's a way to allow ourselves to start letting go a little bit the way we cling to things. Report an error in the passage at 18:03 Highlight the passage at 18:03

18:17 And we'll motivate this class to each one of us being able to develop a correct understanding of emptiness in this life. And then being able to apply that understanding to our lives so that we can actually help others and Report an error in the passage at 18:17 Highlight the passage at 18:17

18:36 ourselves. Bring Report an error in the passage at 18:36 Highlight the passage at 18:36

18:56 your mind back to your body, your cushion, this room. And Report an error in the passage at 18:56 Highlight the passage at 18:56

19:05 we'll start with the opening prayers, which Report an error in the passage at 19:05 Highlight the passage at 19:05

19:13 I don't have. Not to mention to Haley. Thanks. Report an error in the passage at 19:13 Highlight the passage at 19:13

19:27 So Tim, we do the one on page 8 of His Holiness. Report an error in the passage at 19:27 Highlight the passage at 19:27

19:37 With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain. Report an error in the passage at 19:37 Highlight the passage at 19:37

20:02 Until then, may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings, as long as space remains. Report an error in the passage at 20:02 Highlight the passage at 20:02

20:30 As long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. With the wish to free all beings, I shall always go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha until I reach full enlightenment. Inspired by wisdom and compassion, today in the Buddha's presence, I generate the mind of full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. Report an error in the passage at 20:30 Highlight the passage at 20:30

20:58 As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world. Report an error in the passage at 20:58 Highlight the passage at 20:58

21:18 Welcome. Thanks, Cedric. I'm glad. Good to see you. A couple of people snuck in while we were meditating. See, the impermanence of the group, right? Report an error in the passage at 21:18 Highlight the passage at 21:18

21:29 Also, I'm noticing that it's like slowly winding down to you and me. It's like Wendy and the boys here. Totally. We've got a couple of traveling women. Jane's still traveling and Stephanie's still traveling. There you go. There you go. Doing your best. So does anyone have any discussion about, since we had to close early, I wanted to allow plenty of time to talk about the bodhicitta meditation, but then also if people want to make any comments about the meditation that we just did. Report an error in the passage at 21:29 Highlight the passage at 21:29

22:07 um or any of the reading or anything mean within reason but can you grab the mic excuse me Report an error in the passage at 22:07 Highlight the passage at 22:07

22:27 idea of going back and saying that one moment of consciousness from a previous moment Report an error in the passage at 22:27 Highlight the passage at 22:27

22:42 the universe. I don't think I'm saying that wrong. Actually, they say limitless, but actually they just mean a very large number. Report an error in the passage at 22:42 Highlight the passage at 22:42

22:52 Yeah, yeah. I Report an error in the passage at 22:52 Highlight the passage at 22:52

23:02 guess Report an error in the passage at 23:02 Highlight the passage at 23:02

23:11 I'm having a hard time with the idea that, or my understanding about consciousness is that what the nature of you is must exist when you are in your deepest state of sleep, right? When you're in a dreamless state of sleep. You're talking about levels of mind, subtle levels of mind? Report an error in the passage at 23:11 Highlight the passage at 23:11

23:37 That if what you are is not there in your dreamless state of sleep, then it is not essentially a part of you. I think you're still, the term, the nature of you is a little bit, that's where I'm having a little caution. Because it's sounding a little soul-like. And there is no soul in terms of this. But there is a most subtle level of your mind. Report an error in the passage at 23:37 Highlight the passage at 23:37

24:03 And that could be what you're referring to. That is what carries karma. That is what moves from life to life. And that would be with you in your deepest sleep or even in a coma. Report an error in the passage at 24:03 Highlight the passage at 24:03

24:16 But it's not so much you, if you're thinking of you as being all the gross things you are in this life. Not gross, like disgusting, but gross. Report an error in the passage at 24:16 Highlight the passage at 24:16

24:29 So it wouldn't necessarily be your identity or it wouldn't even be your memories or your afflicted states of mind like anger or anything like that. Those things might not be with you in that really most subtle state of mind. So then? Report an error in the passage at 24:29 Highlight the passage at 24:29

24:56 idea of my essence Report an error in the passage at 24:56 Highlight the passage at 24:56

25:06 life Report an error in the passage at 25:06 Highlight the passage at 25:06

25:11 just my my to ideate or Report an error in the passage at 25:11 Highlight the passage at 25:11

25:18 not what I am. I think that's closer, yeah, because it's not conceptual necessarily. Because if you're not human, you probably, I think that would be, I think we could safely say that most insects wouldn't have a conceptual thought. Most animals wouldn't as well, although there are some apes that might. But, yeah, so not your conceptual thoughts, but your simple perceptions could be. Report an error in the passage at 25:18 Highlight the passage at 25:18

25:47 There's still movements of mind. There's still elements of mind that would go from life to life with whatever form of being you reincarnate as. Report an error in the passage at 25:47 Highlight the passage at 25:47

26:00 Does that help? It helps. I mean, it's all kind of digging, removing more and more skins of the onion, right? And I, of course, am too. But that's my understanding. And that currently we're operating mostly with our gross mind. In very deep... Dates of meditation, we can access our subtle mind. And at the moment of, and actually in really deep states of meditation, which is what we're trying to do in tantra, and also at the moment of death, we have the chance of a perception of our most subtle state of mind. Report an error in the passage at 26:00 Highlight the passage at 26:00

26:37 So there's three levels. I Report an error in the passage at 26:37 Highlight the passage at 26:37

26:44 have a question on the generating bodhicitta and kind of the difference with the various vows. It seems like, you know, kind of reading the text, The various texts is generating bodhicitta has this kind of exponential karmic result based off of various vows examples. Report an error in the passage at 26:44 Highlight the passage at 26:44

27:07 Maybe I'm misinterpreting this, but it seems like someone who's been ordained, their efforts of bodhicitta is greater than all the beings. Maybe it's not. someone who has been ordained, but maybe someone else who's greater than all the I think it's probably not somebody necessarily who's been ordained, but probably somebody who has attainments. Maybe somebody who's been ordained and really keeping their values purely, that could be. Report an error in the passage at 27:07 Highlight the passage at 27:07

27:35 But that would, I think, be in and of itself a level of attainment. It's probably more like a bodhisattva keeping, you know what I mean? So like an actual being who is able to benefit more beings, an arhat. These different levels of the bodhisattva where they have all these different levels of attainment where they've generated these different really strong states of mind, like an accomplished city. Report an error in the passage at 27:35 Highlight the passage at 27:35

27:58 You've heard that term before. Yeah, like that. I think it's more talking about that. So is it more that, just not regarding the vows, is it that their motivation is more pure? Yeah, yeah. It's the scope of their ability to help people, really. And the fact that they, again, it's like that idea that when I was saying that if I, like, Totally pledged for the rest of my life and lives to only support you, that would be wonderful. But if I can then extend it to everyone in this class, that would be even more amazing. Report an error in the passage at 27:58 Highlight the passage at 27:58

28:28 And then thinking about with the bodhisattva, it's all beings limitlessly without exception, no matter what they do to harm me, no matter, you know, like without break from lifetime to lifetime. So it's just this enormity that makes it so powerful. So my last question, sorry. Hopefully not your last question. So then in regards to a lay person on the path wanting to follow the steps of the path and trying to earn enough merit to get stronger understandings or clear realizations, it seems that almost you can't in terms of where it might take eons and eons versus someone who's taken those. Report an error in the passage at 28:28 Highlight the passage at 28:28

29:09 Oh, no. I mean, look at Milarepa. And there's plenty of examples, I think, of lay people who have. have attained enlightenment even in one life. In this tradition, I'll admit, there is a really strong emphasis on ordination, but that's not true for all the traditions. And His Holiness even said at the teachings in New York, he said, yes, the Buddha did show by his life he went from a layperson to an ordained state. Report an error in the passage at 29:09 Highlight the passage at 29:09

29:34 He did ordain his followers and things like that. So he was showing that this was a good path, but not the only path. I mean, the whole act of just taking refuge and following the refuge precepts, which is really the first step, is you're pledging to follow these and to keep them, and that strengthens them more than if you just decide you're going to follow, same with the lay vows, if you just decide you're going to follow virtuous. Report an error in the passage at 29:34 Highlight the passage at 29:34

30:06 State of mind or something as much as you can. It's stronger, they say, to actually take a vow because you're pledging it in front of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas and your preceptor. I will not kill again in this life intentionally, with intention. And so they say that there's so much more strength than that because every time, it's not just like every time you have the opportunity to kill and you don't, you get good credit. Report an error in the passage at 30:06 Highlight the passage at 30:06

30:34 It's like all the time. It's always in your mental continuum. It just goes from life to life. So it's just this strength behind it that's not there if you don't take the vow. So that's, they say, the value of the vows is just this kind of nonstop. It goes back to that, even when distracted or asleep, it's like it's always generating this merit because your determination is there. Report an error in the passage at 30:34 Highlight the passage at 30:34

31:03 So it covers you all the time, not just when you... Oh, wait a minute, I don't want to kill that guy because I, you know, yeah, so it's like all the time. It's like it sort of creates the safety around you for all being, you know. Anybody else, Matt? Report an error in the passage at 31:03 Highlight the passage at 31:03

31:35 This is a really challenging meditation. Is the bodhicitta one, I'm assuming. Yeah, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 31:35 Highlight the passage at 31:35

31:45 So the first meditation, Report an error in the passage at 31:45 Highlight the passage at 31:45

31:57 we're on some of the Report an error in the passage at 31:57 Highlight the passage at 31:57

32:01 unbearable sense of compassion that we're working into suffering. Report an error in the passage at 32:01 Highlight the passage at 32:01

32:13 it was really like an internal conflict for me, it seems like... Report an error in the passage at 32:13 Highlight the passage at 32:13

32:27 guess it seems almost like a negative connotation in the language. I think we do have an aversion to suffering for the most part. I mean, aversion doesn't have to be so strong. Aversion is basically just pulling back. Report an error in the passage at 32:27 Highlight the passage at 32:27

32:44 Aversion, I think, could be anything from road rage to just, you know, even on your own body, not necessarily wanting to look at a sore or whatever, or not even wanting to look at your sadness or something like that. It could be just towards yourself. I think aversion can play out in all these different ways. It doesn't have to be like that. But I think often. Report an error in the passage at 32:44 Highlight the passage at 32:44

33:07 If I, you know, I mean, you know, just speaking for myself, if I see like profound suffering, it's hard to just kind of steal myself and go into it. You know, like if you have to go and visit somebody who's dying, for example, or something, you just, you know, you have to. So that's what I think the word aversion, maybe we don't use it so much. Report an error in the passage at 33:07 Highlight the passage at 33:07

33:27 But yeah, that unbearable sense of compassion is really trying to bring up that whole idea where this compassion almost just like bursts out of you. That's what I mean by that. And I can't remember if I used that or if I used it from another description. But it has to do with that sort of like where it is. Report an error in the passage at 33:27 Highlight the passage at 33:27

33:49 Because we don't want to get stuck when you're going through these steps. And I realize I cut you off and I'll let you finish in a second. But when we go through these steps, they do play on each other and they feed into the next step. And you don't want to get stuck too much on each step. So it's good once you get to know them to spend... Report an error in the passage at 33:49 Highlight the passage at 33:49

34:06 You know, the same amount of time. Like, don't just stay with the one that you really like or something. So when you're in the compassion, it's really good to feel it. But then you move on because the point is we have to, I mean, this meditation should end feeling pretty strong. Like, you're strong. You're deciding to take this on for all beings. It's like, it's really quite a powerful feeling. So you should come out of it almost like it should actually feel good. Report an error in the passage at 34:06 Highlight the passage at 34:06

34:32 But the compassion part may not. That part may be hard, but you don't want to just stay there kind of going around in a circle. So it is a little unbearable in that sense because that suffering is unbearable. And so then how are you going to get to the next step? So it's like you want to, it becomes so much for you that you want to move to the next step where you can then take it on, you know. Report an error in the passage at 34:32 Highlight the passage at 34:32

34:55 So I think that's kind of where that languaging comes from. But yeah, I mean. Languaging in Tibetan Buddhism is very funny too because Shantideva uses this whole very martial approach to talking about bodhisattvas and bodhicitta. Has anyone read the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life or any parts of it? He's always talking about like you're taking on the delusions in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 34:55 Highlight the passage at 34:55

35:19 And you're basically shooting them down and hitting them with arrows and you're becoming this warrior. Bodhisattva could be translated as a bodhi mind warrior, basically. But you're a warrior for compassion. But yeah, it's always like, you know, that's the true enemy, the self-cherishing mind, you know, slay it, kill it. I mean, it's really quite violent and we're all like, oh my God, Keshala, you know, he's like, no, no, it's okay, you know. Report an error in the passage at 35:19 Highlight the passage at 35:19

35:45 So it's like a whole different idea because we're used to that being an external slashing and all. And in reality, what his point is, is that we've been following. That idea that everything is external to us and our true enemy, what's keeping us here, what's keeping us in suffering is all these internal demons, basically, which don't have any, you know, they aren't true demons. Report an error in the passage at 35:45 Highlight the passage at 35:45

36:11 They aren't necessarily little beings with horns, but they're just, you know, the things that keep us lazy or that, you know, keep us, you know, self-centered or that keep us angry or, you know, it's like that. So he's saying slay those, you know, those are your true enemies. anyway, go ahead, finish your point. Report an error in the passage at 36:11 Highlight the passage at 36:11

36:47 Yeah, there you go. Report an error in the passage at 36:47 Highlight the passage at 36:47

36:51 I Report an error in the passage at 36:51 Highlight the passage at 36:51

37:11 think ultimately we'll get there. I think it's hard now because we're kind of getting pulled by all of our emotions. That'll be the emptiness part. That'll be the wisdom part that allows us to have sort of a calmer place about it. Right now I think we are still really caught up with sort of the emotions of it all. Report an error in the passage at 37:11 Highlight the passage at 37:11

37:29 And that's not a bad thing. We can actually use those emotions to kind of get us there. But I think if you try to go there too quickly, you end up being a little aloof. And bodhisattvas are not necessarily cold and aloof. You know, they do feel. If you look at His Holiness, you know, He has feelings. Report an error in the passage at 37:29 Highlight the passage at 37:29

37:49 He cries, you know, when people present when the Tibetans come from Tibet and describe their suffering, He cries. He empathizes with them. But then he acts. So it's like we don't want to get so caught up with the crying that we can't act. And on the other hand, we don't want to not cry. We don't want to not feel for others. We don't want to just be like, well, it's all karma, you know, and not listen to them and not really truly be present with them. Report an error in the passage at 37:49 Highlight the passage at 37:49

38:18 It's a toss-up. It's difficult. And right now we're at that transitional part, which probably will last several lifetimes, where we're trying to balance the two. So it's just a moment by moment thing and you have to just constantly watch your mind. There's not like any right or wrong answer. You just have to constantly go, am I trying to be the strong bodhisattva and actually not being present for this person? Report an error in the passage at 38:18 Highlight the passage at 38:18

38:41 Or am I, you know, being too present for this person so I can't act anymore? You know, you just have to constantly check. Yeah, this is not the easy path. Report an error in the passage at 38:41 Highlight the passage at 38:41

38:54 Anybody else, Dean? Report an error in the passage at 38:54 Highlight the passage at 38:54

38:58 Thanks. There you go. Like, more unraveled than I've ever seen it look. Report an error in the passage at 38:58 Highlight the passage at 38:58

39:08 For me, so far, the hardest language aspect of this is affectionate love. Yeah, I don't like that one either. I can't figure out what the term should be. Yeah, so I was going to ask, you know, there's probably a whole translation difference. I don't like loving kindness either, though, you know? It seems like a sentiment. Yeah, yeah. Different. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I keep getting hung up. If I say... Report an error in the passage at 39:08 Highlight the passage at 39:08

39:37 It's great love, maybe, or something. Report an error in the passage at 39:37 Highlight the passage at 39:37

39:46 Well, right now it is, but there are elements of that that's perfect, actually. The elements, I think especially with parenthood, there's like this element of wanting to really remove their suffering if you could. Knowing you can't, but you want to, you know, you still want to. And it's hard for the rest of us to get that. We might have it for a partner, we might have it for a best friend, we might have it for a parent, we might have it for a dog or cat or something. Report an error in the passage at 39:46 Highlight the passage at 39:46

40:13 And that's really true and we can draw on that. But I think you're on to something there with extending that love. And yeah, all of our love is mixed with attachment now. We're not perfect, you know. It's really, it's... But that's a good stuff. Yeah, maybe, I think it's actually more like, almost like great love, but I can't, yeah, I think it's, we've got to figure out a better word. Report an error in the passage at 40:13 Highlight the passage at 40:13

40:33 Maybe when more of us have actually realized it. We'll all get together and we'll decide, great, like, you know, but I don't like affectionate love either. Something about affection just sounds like, hmm, yeah. And especially, especially if you want to, I don't know, like you're saying some people don't want you, or some people, you know, you know, are you, are you getting me? Report an error in the passage at 40:33 Highlight the passage at 40:33

· · · silence, 1 minute

41:28 Yeah, I don't know what that term should be. I'll have to think about that one more. Maybe I'll try to go back. Maybe it also has to do with us not knowing Tibetan so well. Maybe we should look at the translation of Tibetan. But I know some people have, you know, and this is the best they've come up with, so there might be some. The problem is, too, is that we don't have these states of mind so much in our language, and so trying to describe them in English hasn't happened yet. Report an error in the passage at 41:28 Highlight the passage at 41:28

41:57 Maybe we'll come up with a completely new term. Right now we're trying to fit English words together, you know, to create what the Tibetan word meant. It's like Tibetans have, like, probably, I don't know how many words for mind. Because they've studied the mind, they've looked at the mind for centuries, for actually many, many centuries. So it's sort of like the Eskimos in snow, right? Report an error in the passage at 41:57 Highlight the passage at 41:57

42:18 But we just use mind. We're starting to look at mind more, but we really basically have one word for mind. And so we try to look at all these different levels of mind, and we tack English words together to try to describe what it is that they're saying with a completely different word. So, yeah, problematic. Report an error in the passage at 42:18 Highlight the passage at 42:18

42:38 I was just going to say that maybe it's just that affection has become sort of trivialized in our culture has become sort of a hallmark card word Yeah, I know. No, it's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, even love has to some extent, too, which is why I think defining love as simply wanting another's happiness is really radical. Report an error in the passage at 42:38 Highlight the passage at 42:38

43:00 Yeah, maybe it's sort of like, I don't know. And even if you say something like caring love, that's not right either. Yeah, we'll work on it. Whoever gets the realization first, get back to me on that one. Report an error in the passage at 43:00 Highlight the passage at 43:00

43:16 But I also wanted to point out that... know. Um. Report an error in the passage at 43:16 Highlight the passage at 43:16

43:19 At the end of the class last time, Robin had pointed out this problem, and she's not the only one. This comes up actually in every class that I've ever taken on bodhicitta and every teaching I've ever had. What if you don't have this experience of having been nurtured as a child? How can you work with this same meditation? Report an error in the passage at 43:19 Highlight the passage at 43:19

43:42 And the one point that we've been trading emails, if that's okay, if I mention this, yeah. The one point that I want to make sure that is, you know, that you get that these different meditations will lead you to a certain state of mind. So if you want to, you know, adapt them to your own life experience, that's great. That's fine and, in fact, necessary. Report an error in the passage at 43:42 Highlight the passage at 43:42

44:05 But you want it to arrive at the same state of mind, like there's a purpose for them. And so it could get lost if you were... Just thinking of, I was thinking of like, if you aren't able to, in that particular one, what you're trying to do is arrive at a state where you have this incredible gratitude towards this person, the mother who has cared for you and all the ways that she's cared for you. Report an error in the passage at 44:05 Highlight the passage at 44:05

44:33 So if you don't use the mother, then you want to use something else that will help you arrive at that same. State of mind. Because then you can move to the next one where you want to repay that kindness. But if you don't have that sort of sense of indebtedness, then you can't kind of move on through. Report an error in the passage at 44:33 Highlight the passage at 44:33

44:50 I mean, you'll be forcing the links. The links won't be so clear. So I think it's important to mention that, yeah, we all have to adapt it because we all have different lives. And the whole point of these meditations is not just to read the words, it's to actually have a living experience of them with your own experience. Report an error in the passage at 44:50 Highlight the passage at 44:50

45:09 So feel free to make them your own with whatever way you need to do that. But just remember that you try to figure out what the state of mind is that you're trying to... end with before you move on to the next one. So that's just the only point. I know a lot of times people, when we've talked about the kindness of the mothers, they would rather see all sentient beings as their children, you know, with this idea. Report an error in the passage at 45:09 Highlight the passage at 45:09

45:38 But you don't necessarily have, maybe as a grown-up and your children as grown-ups, you might have a sense of indebtedness to your kids for all they've taught you. But usually at the time that they're little kids, So that's just the only point. Report an error in the passage at 45:38 Highlight the passage at 45:38

45:49 The love and all is coming, they may love you in a sort of somewhat unconditional way, so that might be there, but you don't have that sense of indebtedness to them yet. So it's a little harder to make that one work, unless as... You get older, they take care of you, which of course many of us have now begun to experience as we care for our aging parents. So just, yeah, that would be the only thing, is just to remember that these are basically, they're exercises for your mind. Report an error in the passage at 45:49 Highlight the passage at 45:49

46:20 And so it's sort of like in a gym, you're trying to attain a certain level of fitness before you move to the next one. This is a certain level of mind before you move to the next one, and that then you just move on down the line. Report an error in the passage at 46:20 Highlight the passage at 46:20

46:33 It's a really important point because we all have different ways that we were brought up or not, that we grew up. Sure, yeah, absolutely. Can you pass the mic to Robin? He's going to bring it to you much less. All that I was trying to say is that when you were bringing up that imagery, even though I intellectually understood exactly where you were coming from, all that it was doing was bringing up negative memories. Report an error in the passage at 46:33 Highlight the passage at 46:33

47:04 Right, yeah. And as much as I tried to move past that, The more you talked about it, it was like, oh gee, not another one. And so the whole time I was like pushing away these memories. And so I guess maybe, because I do understand the feeling, it's not like I've never had that feeling. It's just the imagery that you were evoking. Report an error in the passage at 47:04 Highlight the passage at 47:04

47:27 Not working for you. So I guess maybe more neutral language would work. You know, the maternal instinct. When one feels nurtured, when one feels held and cared for. Because I think everybody can find somebody falls into that category. And see, after we emailed, I mean, I started thinking about it. And yeah, there were individuals that gave me that feeling in my life. Report an error in the passage at 47:27 Highlight the passage at 47:27

47:55 Because, of course. But at the time, I With that particular image. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good point. It's interesting though, for me, those same images are very powerful. And so it's sort of like, and I have heard from other students where that particular image is quite powerful. So it is really hard. It's sort of like if I keep it all neutral, will those students be able to go into it in the same way? I don't know. Report an error in the passage at 47:55 Highlight the passage at 47:55

48:28 I mean, I can play with it and see if I can come up with more neutral images. Report an error in the passage at 48:28 Highlight the passage at 48:28

49:00 I have to see how that one would work with this. It might make it even longer than it is. Report an error in the passage at 49:00 Highlight the passage at 49:00

49:14 I think you could actually say that exact sentence. Think of your own mother or think of the mother of a friend. Because I remember actually in my situation, I think a lot of... that's the problem. Report an error in the passage at 49:14 Highlight the passage at 49:14

49:27 A lot of us know situations like this where my father was a very violent and angry person, as much as I know that he loved us. So I sort of adopted another friend's father. And actually, my brother's best friend did the same with my father, because his father was even worse. So it's all relative, isn't it? So you can think of somebody else who... Report an error in the passage at 49:27 Highlight the passage at 49:27

49:53 And then sort of give them that. Or even one that you read about, you know, reading the Little House on the Prairie books, you know, that family or the Waltons or something, you know, where something you related to in that, you know, that incredible nurturing and kindness, even if it was just, you know, maybe it was somebody's reality, actually. Report an error in the passage at 49:53 Highlight the passage at 49:53

50:11 I think it was. Both of those were based on real people's lives, so those people do exist somehow. Anyway, that's a good point. Thank you. Report an error in the passage at 50:11 Highlight the passage at 50:11

50:20 Okay, so we're going to move on. Again, too quickly remembering that this is just the quickest overview of bodhicitta that you'll ever get in your life. But that the next time that you study it, you'll have this much of a foothold on it. So, I mean, that's kind of cool. And some of you may have already begun studying it on your own. Report an error in the passage at 50:20 Highlight the passage at 50:20

50:43 Again, I am going to be teaching the Discovering Buddhism class on bodhicitta in March, so it's coming soon. And I'll think a lot about that languaging. And the other thing is, too, remember this is just one method. So the other method of developing bodhicitta is the exchange of self with others, which involves the meditation on Tonglen and things like that. Report an error in the passage at 50:43 Highlight the passage at 50:43

51:08 It has nothing to do with the mother and has nothing to do with thinking of all beings as being your mother, both of which can be problematic. And so there are other methods out there. Report an error in the passage at 51:08 Highlight the passage at 51:08

51:21 So we're going to go back. If you have your root text, then you can read along on verses 9 through 11, but otherwise you can just listen. We're going to start talking a little bit about emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 51:21 Highlight the passage at 51:21

51:34 You may master renunciation and the wish, which is bodhicitta, but unless you have the wisdom perceiving reality, you cannot cut the root of psychic life. Make efforts in the ways, then, to perceive dependent arising. A person's entered the path that pleases the Buddhas when for all objects, in the cycle or beyond, he sees that cause and effect can never fail, and when for him they lose all solid appearance. Report an error in the passage at 51:34 Highlight the passage at 51:34

52:01 You've yet to realize the thought of the able, meaning the Buddhas, as long as two ideas seem to you disparate, the appearance of things, infallible dependent arising, and emptiness beyond taking any position. So today we're actually going to talk a little bit about emptiness and then more about dependent arising, which is impermanence is the way towards getting closer to emptiness and so is dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 52:01 Highlight the passage at 52:01

52:29 So emptiness has this sort of reputation of being sort of this sounds very mysterious and esoteric and I don't know obscure even belief. And actually it's quite practical and actually it's also the basis of everything else in Buddhism. It's even the basis of genuine compassion and bodhicitta. And the workings of karma totally depend upon the teachings of emptiness. And the fact that all of us can become Buddhas depend upon these teachings of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 52:29 Highlight the passage at 52:29

53:08 This is what makes it possible. So it's actually very profoundly... Practical, these teachings on emptiness. And they also aren't so difficult to understand in a simple form. What's difficult is to get them at the... It's sort of like death, right? We can understand that we're going to die, but we don't necessarily get it at our gut. Report an error in the passage at 53:08 Highlight the passage at 53:08

53:32 We don't wake up and every second really be aware of my own impermanence. That's the difference. We can understand these teachings at a... You know, intellectual level. And then the process is starting, is just letting them trickle down slowly, slowly. And not feeling so desperate to understand every word of it because it's tricky stuff. Report an error in the passage at 53:32 Highlight the passage at 53:32

53:57 As I said in that email to you, it's like trying to grasp mercury. You know, those of us who remember mercury thermometers and when they would break. Report an error in the passage at 53:57 Highlight the passage at 53:57

54:06 Divided us immediately into two groups. These little balls of mercury would be everywhere, which are actually kind of cool to look at, but you can never get a hold of them. They slink away. So Empty, for the wisdom video, or the wisdom... um, but. Report an error in the passage at 54:06 Highlight the passage at 54:06

54:25 A module of the DB classes, there's an interview with Jan Willis, who is a professor at Wesleyan University, but she was also one of the first students at La Miesche, way back, like literally in the late 60s. Report an error in the passage at 54:25 Highlight the passage at 54:25

54:39 She says the one thing that gets left out is empty of, empty of what? Like people just talk about the emptiness, but they don't talk empty of what? And so I think it's quite useful to always say the full sentence, empty of inherent existence, empty of. As what Rabina called it, empty of intrinsic existence, empty of absolute existence, empty of that concrete, solid, permanent existence that we place on everything, whether it's this table or Morgan or Morgan's moods or my, me, my moods, you know, I am what I am, right? Report an error in the passage at 54:39 Highlight the passage at 54:39

55:17 I can never change, you know, that idea that I can never change. Or even thinking that all my good qualities will last forever, because they can change too. So things are not, the Buddha taught that things are not, don't inherently exist the way we perceive them to. Report an error in the passage at 55:17 Highlight the passage at 55:17

55:39 Which is really, that's really a simple way of thinking of emptiness. Things don't exist the way they appear to my senses to exist. And by my senses, I don't mean just my eyes and ears and nose, but also my mind. Because my mind is obscured right now, too. So when I look at things, when I perceive things, and when I believe in them, it's still filtered through this obscured mind. Report an error in the passage at 55:39 Highlight the passage at 55:39

56:08 Nargajuna said, anyone who knows not emptiness has no hope of freedom at all. Left in darkness they will circle in the prison the six realms of pain. So actually studying emptiness and trying to understand, well studying emptiness is first, understanding emptiness is second, you know, realizing emptiness is way on down the line. Report an error in the passage at 56:08 Highlight the passage at 56:08

56:28 But without emptiness there's no hope of nirvāṇa, there's no hope of liberation. Emptiness is what, understanding emptiness, developing a correct view of emptiness is what cuts. The ignorance that's keeping us here. The misconceptions. And actually that is the base ignorance is the way, is misunderstanding reality as it is. Report an error in the passage at 56:28 Highlight the passage at 56:28

56:53 That's the basic ignorance. It causes everything else to happen. So as I said, beginning to understand impermanence and death is a step towards understanding emptiness, which is why we started with that. Even just getting it at this level that Western science is totally in agreement with, that things are moving all the time, things are changing all the time. Report an error in the passage at 56:53 Highlight the passage at 56:53

57:18 The things like our cup looks to be permanent and solid and unchanging, but actually is disintegrating slowly over time. We're shocked when a handle falls off or something like that, but that's because we really honestly don't get that everything is impermanent. you know. Report an error in the passage at 57:18 Highlight the passage at 57:18

57:36 And at this level, actually, Western science is totally in agreement with, I mean, even the floor, you know, things that seem to be solid, houses, you know, gradually those people who own their houses know you have to replace roofs and you have to, you know, make repairs on walls and door handles and things like that because they are subtly breaking down. Report an error in the passage at 57:36 Highlight the passage at 57:36

57:57 We just can't see it at that level. They actually say there's a level that once you attain calm abiding, you actually can see subtle impermanence. As it's happening, which is pretty incredible, because your concentration is so strong. Usually we turn away before something, you know, we get distracted before even a leaf falls off, much less disintegrates, you know. Report an error in the passage at 57:57 Highlight the passage at 57:57

58:21 But there are these two levels of impermanence, subtle and gross, and I think all of us have seen gross impermanence, you know, a broken mug, somebody dying. Report an error in the passage at 58:21 Highlight the passage at 58:21

58:36 A day ending. I mean, we're faced with impermanence all the time. We may have aversion to it. We may not look at it. We may actually just celebrate the sunset without thinking, oh, that's the end of another day. Actually, that day's gone forever. Rubina actually says that at night. She's just like, that day's gone. Report an error in the passage at 58:36 Highlight the passage at 58:36

58:55 I don't have this day anymore. My life is this much closer to ending. She really pushes it in her own mind, which is why I think she works literally. So many hours, she works through the night sometimes, many nights, because she gets this idea of impermanence at a deeper level than the rest of us. I wouldn't be looking forward to my afternoon nap. Report an error in the passage at 58:55 Highlight the passage at 58:55

59:22 But everything is actually much more spacious and fluid and flexible and moving. Than we think it is, you know. Think about it in terms of the moods. You wake up and you have this really black mood and you can give in to it. And the whole day can be a black mood. But you could also go, wait, actually this can shift. And it does. And it actually is interesting when that happens. If you decide not to spiral down and to shift it. Report an error in the passage at 59:22 Highlight the passage at 59:22

59:53 And then it's almost like everything has, like all the armies have come to do your negative day thing. And they're all like... Oh, okay. And it's almost like this kind of disappointment and you're like, wait a second, I guess you can change this. Because our moods are also not solid. Our moods are not solid and impermanent. I mean, not solid and permanent and unchanging and concrete. So what this does is it just sort of lightens things a little bit. Report an error in the passage at 59:53 Highlight the passage at 59:53

1:00:20 It's like... Everything can change. I mean, the good things, it's wonderful to have the good things. It's not to say that it's not wonderful to have wonderful things, to have good experiences, to have good people in your life, to get together with old friends, things like that. But always with this idea that this won't last forever. And actually that allows you to be more present, right? Because sometimes we can be getting together with old friends but thinking about the work we have to do tomorrow. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:20 Highlight the passage at 1:00:20

1:00:45 Well, like... That'll come, just to be present, just to really appreciate this mug while it lasts before I break it this afternoon or something. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:45 Highlight the passage at 1:00:45

1:00:56 Really, it allows you to be a little bit more flexible. But there are two things that we do with this sort of basic misperception. One is we perceive things as this sort of permanent, unchanging, absolute thing. And that includes, you know, if somebody's done me wrong, right, then forevermore I see them as a horrible person. And, of course, they've already completely changed 17 times since the last time I saw them, which was just yesterday. Report an error in the passage at 1:00:56 Highlight the passage at 1:00:56

1:01:34 Of course, I'm going to have a coughing fit. Let's take a moment. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:34 Highlight the passage at 1:01:34

1:01:54 Yesterday I had to lead two Pujos, and I had a coughing fit in both of them. It's so lovely. Anyway, this too shall pass, right? I like the Demi Moore kind of voice, though. I wish that would be, maybe I could grasp onto that one as being permanent. Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche says it's bad enough that we perceive things in this way, but then we believe it too. Report an error in the passage at 1:01:54 Highlight the passage at 1:01:54

1:02:26 So we do both of those. We see things as existing in this way, and then we just believe it as solidly so and act on it. And usually the way we act on it is not positive. Usually it's aversion, having hatred to Olivier for hurting me so badly last year or whatever. Report an error in the passage at 1:02:26 Highlight the passage at 1:02:26

1:02:49 And grasping onto this cup and wanting to protect it and getting insurance for it and a special little, you know, collector's shelf for it and all the things, you know, and getting matching ones that go with it and all that stuff. It's that kind of grasping mind can also develop on something in permanent. Or, you know, hey, this is one, you get together with somebody you think they're always going to be the same they were, you know, when you met them and you started going out with them, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:02:49 Highlight the passage at 1:02:49

1:03:12 And then, oh, surprise, they aren't. Thirty years later, they've completely changed, and there's shock. And the shock comes from the shock, whether it's the broken mug or the person deciding to leave you, as Rubina says, for a younger version, or the person dying. The shock, it's not to say that we should not feel sad when somebody dies, but that shock, that sort of, this isn't supposed to be like this. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:12 Highlight the passage at 1:03:12

1:03:44 I remember actually hearing this one woman on the news was talking about that after a flood. It's not supposed to be like this. And, you know, things do happen. This is the nature of, especially once you have the Buddhist point of view, this is an imperfect world still. Things do happen. There are catastrophes like earthquakes. Report an error in the passage at 1:03:44 Highlight the passage at 1:03:44

1:04:07 Floods and people die and, you know, things like that. It doesn't mean not to have compassion. We have to have compassion. We have to act and help out of compassion. But that shock is based on this misperception. That total surprise that, oh my God, he went into the bathroom. My boss's dad, actually, my old boss, before I was working here full time, but her dad went into the bathroom to wash his hands for lunch and died. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:07 Highlight the passage at 1:04:07

1:04:37 know it's Of course that kind of stuff surprises us, but that surprise and that shock is based on thinking that he'll live forever, that we all will live forever. His dying is actually simply pointing out our own dying, so that's even more frightening when you're getting older. So it's all based on that fundamental misperception of reality. Report an error in the passage at 1:04:37 Highlight the passage at 1:04:37

1:05:01 So, Report an error in the passage at 1:05:01 Highlight the passage at 1:05:01

1:05:07 so I guess, yeah, so I mean, things. Things, this idea of the emptiness of things is basically getting down to the fact that everything is empty of this kind of intrinsic, absolute, inherent is the word they use all the time, but I don't think we use that word so much in English, independent, separate existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:07 Highlight the passage at 1:05:07

1:05:31 And one of the ways they described it is they described it as out there, separate from me. And it doesn't mean that I'm making up everything in my head, but it's definitely passing through all of my perceptions, correct? Like everything that I'm experiencing and everything that I'm seeing and everything that I'm hearing and everything that I'm feeling is passing through all of my perceptions. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:31 Highlight the passage at 1:05:31

1:05:53 So it's definitely not separate from my mind, but I don't see it that way. I think everybody could look at, you know, this carpet and think it's, you know, an annoying pattern. You know, I mean, we do that with our favorite song, right? This is my favorite song. You, like, play it for all your best friends and they're kind of like, whatever. Or, like, I hate that one, you know. I mean, there's, like, really strong opinions can go around. Report an error in the passage at 1:05:53 Highlight the passage at 1:05:53

1:06:17 It doesn't inherently exist as wonderful. So what makes it? Wonderful to me and horrifying to Olivier and not so interesting at all to Matt. It's basically karma. This is the teaching that entwines karma and emptiness, basically. My ability, or my, actually I'm forced to perceive it as a wonderful song because of my karma. And Matt is... Report an error in the passage at 1:06:17 Highlight the passage at 1:06:17

1:06:45 It has neutral karma and Olivier has this really negative karma where he hears it and it just actually creates suffering for him. He gets nauseous. It's just horrible, that song. He hates that song. The raw data is the same, but the experience is all completely different. And you can see this with chocolate cake. Report an error in the passage at 1:06:45 Highlight the passage at 1:06:45

1:07:05 You know, you can see it. I now have this allergy to wheat that apparently is manifested, which is my negative karma arising. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:05 Highlight the passage at 1:07:05

1:07:16 So, you know, somebody brings in chocolate cake and they're all happy to share chocolate cake. And for me, it's like a negative experience. I'm like, who cares, you know? It brings up all my negative stuff, you know. Or Olivier could be totally thrilled with chocolate cake, and he's like, wonderful. And then again, Matt could be, poor Matt always gets the neutral comma. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:16 Highlight the passage at 1:07:16

1:07:36 He could take it or leave it. It's not a big deal, you know. So the deliciousness is a positive thing arising from positive karma, which is created how? By our actions, right? So having done something good. He creates a positive imprint and that ripens as a positive experience. My having done a negative act is arising as a negative feeling. Report an error in the passage at 1:07:36 Highlight the passage at 1:07:36

1:08:04 I could also have the experience of being allergic to the wheat and being totally delighted that everyone else can have the chocolate cake. I haven't gotten there yet, but I'm getting towards the neutral, actually. I'm getting closer to the neutral. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:04 Highlight the passage at 1:08:04

1:08:21 The same is true if you introduce your new best friend to all your friends and some people like him and some people think he's not so exciting and some people are completely neutral and some people can't stand him. That's all based on karma. That's all based on karma. Sometimes you have an immediate... Report an error in the passage at 1:08:21 Highlight the passage at 1:08:21

1:08:44 Aversion or attraction to somebody, and that's based on karma. It's not the inherentness, you know, there's not this inherent wonderfulness in Matt. Sorry, Matt. It's not that from his own side, independent of all of us, he is this incredible, delicious being or this incredibly annoying being. He's neither. Our karma is forcing us to perceive of that data of, you know, green shirt. Report an error in the passage at 1:08:44 Highlight the passage at 1:08:44

1:09:11 So and so height, you know, certain things that are there in that certain way. And so I'm seeing him as, you know, good, bad and different based on my karma with him, which shifts also. Again, it's not permanent. But that's the emptiness of Matt and the emptiness of the chocolate cake and the emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:11 Highlight the passage at 1:09:11

1:09:34 Hold on one second. So. can't. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:34 Highlight the passage at 1:09:34

1:09:38 Ultimately, it's understanding this marriage of karma and emptiness that allows us to overcome the different mental afflictions that we have, which allows us to become Buddhas. Because no kind of karma lasts forever, and nothing has an inherent existence of its own, meaning not so much that Matt doesn't exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:09:38 Highlight the passage at 1:09:38

1:10:03 Because there is a conventional reality of Matt. He has a certain identity. He has a subtle, most subtle mind that has taken this form of a human. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:03 Highlight the passage at 1:10:03

1:10:13 And that will become a Buddha. but He doesn't exist in any inherent way that I can grab onto and say, he's always that way and that's why he irritates me and that's why my mental afflictions arise. Or he is this wonderful way and that's why I throw myself at his feet because he's so incredibly wonderful either. It's both ways. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:13 Highlight the passage at 1:10:13

1:10:38 The object can be completely the same object but be... Perceived completely differently by all the different people in the room. I mean, you've had this experience, too, I think, where people go out to dinner, and one person has a really great time, one person has a neutral time, and one person has a really horrible time and wants to sue the restaurant. Report an error in the passage at 1:10:38 Highlight the passage at 1:10:38

1:11:00 Or you travel, and a friend of mine, actually, Venerable Amy, who was here this summer, one of her first trips to India, just had a wonderful time. Totally loved India, which is... Report an error in the passage at 1:11:00 Highlight the passage at 1:11:00

1:11:13 A challenging country. Totally related to it immediately and loved it the whole time and was traveling with another woman from America who just couldn't stand it. Hated it. Like, your entire experience was negative from start to finish. Never wanted to go back. I don't think she ever has. Two really diverse experiences. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:13 Highlight the passage at 1:11:13

1:11:31 I'd probably be the middle one, I think. The middle way. And it's just based on karma. It's just based on karma. So one way to also look at it is... Does anybody have a pen? Report an error in the passage at 1:11:31 Highlight the passage at 1:11:31

1:11:45 I meant to bring my pen. So looking at this pen. Chad's heard this one before. The pen thing. So this pen is not a pen until I see it as a pen. So this is a way of now looking at it interspecies. Report an error in the passage at 1:11:45 Highlight the passage at 1:11:45

1:12:05 I think, you know, what am I holding up? I'm holding up a cylinder. It's a black cylinder. It has a lid of some sort. Another cylinder that fits onto it is this silver bit. If I take this off, it has a point and there's some sort of fluid inside that I can write with. So with my karmic perception, I label it a pen. But I can tell you that Shanti, the cat upstairs, would think it was a really fun toy. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:05 Highlight the passage at 1:12:05

1:12:33 You know, I'd shoot it around the room, especially when she's in her manic stage, which is what she was at when I left. Where her ears go back and her eyes get all wide and dilated and everything. And she would just shoot it across the floor for hours and she'd think it was a lot of fun. That's not wrong. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:33 Highlight the passage at 1:12:33

1:12:47 That's simply a different karmic perception. I mean, it would work for her. If I were an ant, I might see this as an obstacle to getting the food on the other side. And that would be my karmic perception of this same object. The object in the raw data is still the same, but my karmic... My karma is forcing me to, at that point, see it as just an obstacle to getting the food. Report an error in the passage at 1:12:47 Highlight the passage at 1:12:47

1:13:15 And in the same way, you can have the experience of... Here, I'll toss that back to you. You can have the experience of the screaming boss, which is another example that one of my teachers taught, where you come into work one day and your boss screams at you, and I see him as inherently evil. He's just inherently evil. There's nothing about him that's good. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:15 Highlight the passage at 1:13:15

1:13:38 And I'm clearly having a negative experience. But Robin is actually enjoying it because she's been waiting for me to get it for a long time. She's had it with me. I always come in late. Nobody ever mentions it. And finally I'm getting my due. And Matt again is just bored. I mean, you know, there's some noise in the background. He kind of is thinking about lunch. He's just wondering, you know, if anybody else is going to come in later. Report an error in the passage at 1:13:38 Highlight the passage at 1:13:38

1:14:03 You know, he's kind of in a neutral place about the whole thing. The boss himself is not inherently evil. We have the same raw data. All three of us have the same raw data, but we have different karma with that raw data. And even I might have to admit that the boss does have some good days. And on those days, you know, I actually see the boss as a pretty nice guy. And from the boss's point of view, he's been trying to get me to come in on time for years. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:03 Highlight the passage at 1:14:03

1:14:30 And he's finally burst. And so now he's just letting it all out. He's just trying to make his point clear. So he's doing it with a loud voice. So from his side, he's not inherently evil. From Matt's side, he's not inherently evil. From Robin's side, he's not inherently evil. From my side, my perception is just skewed by my karma at that point of the fact that I've been screaming at somebody in other lifetimes and now it's coming back to me. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:30 Highlight the passage at 1:14:30

1:14:57 So actually, the Buddha taught that everything has this inherently empty quality. Even emptiness itself isn't empty. So you don't want to solidify emptiness either. Nothing can be solidified or reified in that way. One of the, I think next week is when we're going to get into the emptiness of the I, the I, you know, that big I that arises, like if I'm accused of stealing or if somebody, you know, accuses me of something that I haven't done or even that I have done. Report an error in the passage at 1:14:57 Highlight the passage at 1:14:57

1:15:34 It's not the I that comes to class or that goes to, because that's sort of the basic identity. But it's the I didn't do that, you know, or I almost got hit today. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:34 Highlight the passage at 1:15:34

1:15:45 Which is actually when I had it come up. I was able to, when I was a pedestrian, of course. We've had this discussion because Chad rides his bike a lot. And he's always, there's this thing that comes up when you're very defenseless as a bike rider and as a pedestrian. So I actually almost got hit once out in front of. Report an error in the passage at 1:15:45 Highlight the passage at 1:15:45

1:16:05 Hospital, and I'm from Petrero. And it actually did come up, that eye. And it was a thing that was interesting and it was very close. And I went to the side of the road and I was like, that's the eye. This is kind of weird things that happen once you've been a Buddhist for a while. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:05 Highlight the passage at 1:16:05

1:16:23 So we'll get into that next week of looking at the emptiness of the eye. Because right now I think it's easier to begin looking at the emptiness of the table and the emptiness of the... You know, I was like... Report an error in the passage at 1:16:23 Highlight the passage at 1:16:23

1:16:34 This experience in Paris or the emptiness of the screaming boss or the emptiness of even the pen. So what do we do with this information? If we think about the fact that things will continue to happen to us, we're not, just by understanding this doesn't mean that things aren't going to happen to us, that we aren't going to go into work and have the screaming boss or we aren't going to have the car start to run us off the road or whatever because this is a karmic. Report an error in the passage at 1:16:34 Highlight the passage at 1:16:34

1:17:02 Ripening when these things happen. The way that we shift karma is watching how we react. It actually kind of goes back to waking up in the bad mood. You can just give in, lay back and surrender to the negative mood and then ride it for five days. Or you can actually react to it and shift it. You can't force yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:02 Highlight the passage at 1:17:02

1:17:26 To think this is a blissful experience if it's a painful one. So you can't go to the dentist and have him pull out the drill and go, oh no, this is really blissful, he's just a Buddha, and I'm experiencing a lot of happiness right now. I mean, that's just faking it, that's not really going to be doing it. You can, however, bring awareness and go, this is a karmic ripening. This is a negative karma ripening. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:26 Highlight the passage at 1:17:26

1:17:54 He is not inherently evil and neither is that drill. And this pain that's arising is simply a karmic ripening of a negative act that I've done. Now it's done. With this, it's done. Like, that particular act is gone forever. You know, I mean, you can look at it with that amount of wisdom, and that can shift it, rather than thinking, oh, poor me, I'm doing the dinner, and complaining about it to 17 friends afterwards, you know, and talking about how horrible he is, and, you know, well, he might be a bad dinner, so that could be a different issue. Report an error in the passage at 1:17:54 Highlight the passage at 1:17:54

1:18:29 So it's basically bringing wisdom to how you approach the situations that... Are already going to happen to you because you've created the negative karma without just seeing them as these solid inherently existing situations that are coming at you and that you are the victim, which is the way that we often approach what happens to us in the world. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:29 Highlight the passage at 1:18:29

1:18:52 I want to get back to you because you had a question, right? Sorry. Report an error in the passage at 1:18:52 Highlight the passage at 1:18:52

1:19:00 You can come up with another one. Sorry. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:00 Highlight the passage at 1:19:00

1:19:17 And we'll go into dependent arising actually after the break. We're going to take a break. I understand that in terms Report an error in the passage at 1:19:17 Highlight the passage at 1:19:17

1:19:41 of... I Report an error in the passage at 1:19:41 Highlight the passage at 1:19:41

1:19:51 think the Chinese government doesn't have any positive feeling at all for His Holiness. Yeah, they see him as a real pain in the butt, actually. Yeah, yeah. And I think at least initially, the people under Idi Amin saw him as something positive. Certainly a change from the last one. And before they saw something. Yeah, no, it's true. There is collective karma, too. And we have collective karma about certain things that all of us in this room, I think, could look at that cylinder and see it as a pen. Report an error in the passage at 1:19:51 Highlight the passage at 1:19:51

1:20:25 And that's collective karma. That has to do with collective karma. We would look outside and see certain things as like a car, for example. Even really funny looking ones, you know, three wheelers or something we would, I think, all agree with. And that is a collective karma. So we do have collective karma about in the West for the Dalai Lama. But I don't think you could basically ask everybody on the street and get that answer. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:25 Highlight the passage at 1:20:25

1:20:50 I think there would be some dissension there. And possibly not even everybody on the street about Idi Amin. Because some of them could be his former followers who just came here afterwards. I mean, I don't know, you know. I remember actually one time getting into a cab and saying something about, you know, the situation always comes up because I've got the robes on. Report an error in the passage at 1:20:50 Highlight the passage at 1:20:50

1:21:12 You know, have you, you know, what are you and have you ever been to Tibet, Nepal, India, you fill in the blank. And so in this case, this person was Nepali and I said something, you know, we were talking about sort of the different problems that they've had over the years and I said, Report an error in the passage at 1:21:12 Highlight the passage at 1:21:12

1:21:28 The Maoist, I used the term the Maoist, and he was a Maoist, and he didn't like the term. So he said something, I think they preferred rebel or something like that. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:28 Highlight the passage at 1:21:28

1:21:40 So nothing's inherent, yeah. Or the inherently existent nurturing mom, right? There's another one. Other question, Morgan. So I have a... You know, kind of insight in terms of what you're explaining in terms of material objects and emptiness. I think that the challenge is kind of in that my own thoughts and my own meditation of this is, you know, beginning with that and, you know, Western world, we get that physics. Report an error in the passage at 1:21:40 Highlight the passage at 1:21:40

1:22:10 It's always going to change. But when you get back to self in terms of even our bodies, I think I've got I've got insight of that or a little baby one. Right. And then. But when you get to the point of attempting to get an understanding of this subtle consciousness, very subtle consciousness, where is that side to emptiness? Report an error in the passage at 1:22:10 Highlight the passage at 1:22:10

1:22:29 And it seems like you get to like a stopping point and it seems like materially in our reality we have a concept of the breakdown. But then once you kind of get into this very subtle consciousness, where... Where is this going? I think it still continues to be that even our subtle most consciousness doesn't exist in a solid way. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:29 Highlight the passage at 1:22:29

1:22:55 And remembering, too, the fact that our subtle most consciousness also is not like this. It's not like Casper the Ghost. It's not a solid thing. It's not a physical thing. It's mental, so it's made up of mental moments in the same way, but in these incredibly subtle forms of mental moments and these incredibly subtle forms of karma, so that it doesn't exist. Report an error in the passage at 1:22:55 Highlight the passage at 1:22:55

1:23:21 I mean, like they say, it's like a mala, but without the string and without the beads. I mean, it's literally, it's almost like, as Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, it's almost like it's not there, but it is there. So it's almost like, it's like... You know, it's almost like it doesn't exist, but it does exist. It's sort of like so subtle that it's hard for us to get our minds around, but you don't want to freak out. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:21 Highlight the passage at 1:23:21

1:23:45 So that's why I start with like the levels of the floor, you know, like that. Because you definitely, it is very much like unpeeling the onion, that you want to go down deeper. I mean, when you get to the study of emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:23:45 Highlight the passage at 1:23:45

1:24:02 Even just within the Discovering Buddhism class, we go into the different schools, which used to just make my mind totally gloss over. And I always kind of wondered, why do we discuss these lower schools if the higher school is the one that won? Why not just start at the top? Well, the point is that actually we all still believe in some level of the lower schools. We're still operating in lower school reality a lot. Report an error in the passage at 1:24:02 Highlight the passage at 1:24:02

1:24:31 The way that we get closer to the higher views of emptiness is by first starting with impermanence and, you know, moving towards these other, you know, and the grosser forms of impermanence and then moving towards subtle impermanence and then moving towards, you know, emptiness. First moving into the dependent arising, which is what we're going to do after the break, but yeah. Just one last question. In regards to kind of reading... Report an error in the passage at 1:24:31 Highlight the passage at 1:24:31

1:24:58 He always says one last question. I know, I think. 20 last questions. In regards to kind of how the teachings were done historically and kind of reading the text in terms of how, I think, Liberation of the Palm of Your Hand, they talked about how they would go out and... Report an error in the passage at 1:24:58 Highlight the passage at 1:24:58

1:25:23 a solitary realizer and you'd get instruction for meditation and he did this process for 10 years. I can't remember who exactly this Repoche was. Is this the same? Is this the one teaching or? It was a story about how one of the Rinpoches went out to a solitary realizer and got instruction and he would meditate for some time and go back and this went on for 10 years. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:23 Highlight the passage at 1:25:23

1:25:50 Is this the same process in terms of these meditations on emptiness? How much you have to do them? It is, actually. Report an error in the passage at 1:25:50 Highlight the passage at 1:25:50

1:26:04 And also repeatedly doing them. So you don't just have an initial feeling. But you just keep doing it and keep doing it because it's sort of like, have you ever had the experience of going through somebody's death? I remember actually this experience when a friend of mine died maybe 10, 12 years ago. And I remember leaving the hospital and to my friend saying, let's never forget that people die. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:04 Highlight the passage at 1:26:04

1:26:42 Let's never forget how profound this has been. And of course, within a few weeks. I mean, you don't want to remember it, right? And so it's like you get closer to it with these meditations, you get closer to it with the study, and the mind just wants to cover it up. It wants so much to cover it up. And so that's true for all of it, but especially for emptiness, I think. So it really takes literally thousands of hours of study. Report an error in the passage at 1:26:42 Highlight the passage at 1:26:42

1:27:10 And meditation and repeated meditation, repeated, repeated, repeated meditation. Because it's like we've had not just this lifetime, but limitless lifetimes of seeing things as inherently existent, separate from us, happening to us, poor me, you know, that whole idea. So it takes a long time to cut through that. It takes a long time. So some level of patience is necessary. Report an error in the passage at 1:27:10 Highlight the passage at 1:27:10

1:27:40 And then you get these moments of insights and that sort of feeds that wish to understand it. And then the mind kind of covers that up again and you have to go down again. And sometimes it's almost like you have to have the same insight over and over and over. And each time it's like, and then you're like, wait a second, didn't I have that last year in retreat? Report an error in the passage at 1:27:40 Highlight the passage at 1:27:40

1:28:00 But it's like you just have to keep, you know, it's like our minds are almost like quicksand. So, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:00 Highlight the passage at 1:28:00

1:28:10 Any questions? Any other questions? Let me take a break. Okay, let's take a break. And then we'll just come in and we'll talk about dependent arising a little bit and end with a little meditation. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:10 Highlight the passage at 1:28:10

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:28:55 Because it was making my voice sound so loud, although it's the husky voice. Report an error in the passage at 1:28:55 Highlight the passage at 1:28:55

1:29:04 So we'll talk a little bit about this term dependent arising, sometimes called dependent origination. But I like dependent arising better, actually. Cedric's like, okay. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:04 Highlight the passage at 1:29:04

· · · silence, 1 minute

1:29:16 There are three levels of dependent arising. We were just talking about the Tibetan thing of all the lists and how that was really useful for memorizing all of this stuff to bring it to us. So we're really grateful for that. But it's a little funny for all of us, I think, all these lists of things. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:16 Highlight the passage at 1:29:16

1:29:41 This is another way of understanding emptiness. It is not emptiness, but it's a way of getting closer to emptiness, this term dependent arising. Lama Tsongkhapa, who's the founder of this particular school or lineage of Buddhism, the Galukpas, said that if you can understand dependent arising, then you can understand emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 1:29:41 Highlight the passage at 1:29:41

1:30:03 Like it's the ticket in. Not all the schools believe that way, but his... His big one was. And I think dependent arising actually is easier to understand in a lot of ways. Without going, his point is that we could go off the deep end in terms of nihilism. We could go into the point of feeling like, oh, well, nothing exists, so it doesn't matter how I act and I can just, you know, that taxi cab doesn't exist, so I can just walk in front of it. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:03 Highlight the passage at 1:30:03

1:30:32 And, you know, you could just go off into this completely unknown. World of like all is space and atoms and I'm not going to be hurt or anything like that. And that's a form of nihilism. And so to keep you from that, the other extreme is eternalism, what's called eternalism, which is basically where we are now, our materialism, thinking that things solidly exist, permanently exist, never can change, including me. Report an error in the passage at 1:30:32 Highlight the passage at 1:30:32

1:31:01 And that's no good either. So this is sort of the middle way. This is what's meant by that middle way that you might have heard of. So the three aspects of dependent arising. Each of them is a tenet of an earlier school of Buddhism. And again, we have to look at them because we also believe them on some level. The first is causes that things arise due to causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:01 Highlight the passage at 1:31:01

1:31:27 The strongest cause, the main cause, is karma. It's always karma. Conditions are everything else. Conditions are, you know, all the little shades that we were just on the break, we were just talking about, you know, a lot of times people ask questions like, what is the Buddha's view of... And that there are so many variations due to these conditions. Conditions are what was in the person's mind when they did the act, whether they had regret or never had regret, whether that regret was instantaneous, whether they, you know. Report an error in the passage at 1:31:27 Highlight the passage at 1:31:27

1:32:07 Turn themselves in. All the different stages of the person's mind is all really important. Whether or not the person even died that they shot, whether or not that was even a person. All those things are what's called condition. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:07 Highlight the passage at 1:32:07

1:32:23 Karma still exists for it, but all those conditions would affect the power of the karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:23 Highlight the passage at 1:32:23

1:32:31 So this would explain a lot of things except... Things that don't have causes, like space. There's not that many things that the Buddha said don't have a cause. Space doesn't have a cause. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:31 Highlight the passage at 1:32:31

1:32:48 So then it got a little bit more complex, and it was taught that things arise due to causes and conditions and parts, because that would then include everything. Everything, you know. If you were looking at a flower, for example, that the idea of a flower or flower exists based on the karma of there being something there, but also you could say all the petals, the stamen, the pistil, all the stem, the leaves, all the different parts of the flower, the color and all that thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:32:48 Highlight the passage at 1:32:48

1:33:27 You could say that this flower... The flowerness arises based on these parts. Of course we can do that for ourselves too. The body of Chokyi arises based on the hands and the skin and the feet and the head and all the muscles and all the different parts. But then if you start looking at all those parts, you can break each of them down into parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:27 Highlight the passage at 1:33:27

1:33:55 And then each of them down into parts. And that's when it starts getting really Mercury-like, where it's like very slippery. Because everything has more parts. It almost becomes like this hall of mirrors, where each part can be broken down into more parts, and you get down to the cellular levels, and even those have parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:33:55 Highlight the passage at 1:33:55

1:34:17 And even you go down to subatomic molecules, and it's like it gets down. There's never... There's never an end. You just keep going down further and further. But the highest schools actually came up with this third one, which also includes, each of these includes the one before it. So causes and conditions is the base, and then parts includes causes and conditions. And the third one is that things arise due to a mere label and causes and conditions and parts. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:17 Highlight the passage at 1:34:17

1:34:52 And this is the one we're going to spend more time on next week. We're going to spend more time on parts tonight. But this has to do with the most subtle level of emptiness, which is that things exist based on the causes and conditions and then all the different parts of the thing and then my slapping a label or a concept onto it. Report an error in the passage at 1:34:52 Highlight the passage at 1:34:52

1:35:18 So it has to do with that. So we'll talk more about that next time. And again, none of these levels of dependent arising are emptiness itself. It's just a way of helping us get closer to how emptiness works. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:18 Highlight the passage at 1:35:18

1:35:35 And it keeps us from falling into nihilism. So dependent arising is parts. So if we start with, I was hoping somebody threw out those flowers finally. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:35 Highlight the passage at 1:35:35

1:35:49 I was hoping there would be one I could destroy, but it's all right. I think it's more dramatic when you can destroy one. But if we're looking at a flower, say, and then we see all the different parts that go into a flower, you know, all the different petals. Report an error in the passage at 1:35:49 Highlight the passage at 1:35:49

1:36:12 I know. I know. I'll pick one. This one looks like it's kind of near the end, so it's all right. It's not. It doesn't have a mind. All right. Destroy it. Here, I'll get it for you. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:12 Highlight the passage at 1:36:12

1:36:30 This one's already a little kind of decrepit. So we can see all the different things that go into a flower. We can see its petal. We can see that this is the, what is this, the statement? What is this? The thing in the middle. Who in here is a biology person? Well, I'll just say anything then. You guys don't even know. It's the thing in the middle. Report an error in the passage at 1:36:30 Highlight the passage at 1:36:30

1:36:49 And then this is the stem, right? I don't know. You guys are no good. You don't know anything about flowers. Um, and so Based on this, we say this is a flower, but where exactly is the flower? Where is the flower-ness? Where is the flower-ness in this? Is it here? If I take away these, is this still a flower? Here we go, this is the part I like. Is there a flower there or is there a flower here? Report an error in the passage at 1:36:49 Highlight the passage at 1:36:49

1:37:18 If I take this off, is there a flower here? Where in here is there a flower? In what part of this is there a flower? Actually, look, there's like all sorts of odd little things going on in here. I'm getting a lot out of this. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:18 Highlight the passage at 1:37:18

1:37:39 There's aroma as well. When I smelled it, clearly. Pollen as well. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:39 Highlight the passage at 1:37:39

1:37:54 So we have to think about at what point does it start being a flower? cough, cough. Report an error in the passage at 1:37:54 Highlight the passage at 1:37:54

1:38:01 At what point, at what level is it a flower? Is it inherently a flower? And so on. And you can do this with every different part of yourself. Sorry. It's moving about this flower. I'm shedding a tear about this flower. Anyway, if we're honest about it, our eye sort of just assembles this data, all the different parts of this. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:01 Highlight the passage at 1:38:01

1:38:32 And that's why if you look at the human eye, the human eye is like moving all the time. It's trying to gather more and more data. And it shoots that information to the mind. And we label it something. But what forces us to see it in a certain way is our karma. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:32 Highlight the passage at 1:38:32

1:38:53 So the whole thing... There's actually even more to this where we actually create this image of a flower and then we shoot that image to the brain and the brain is actually responding to that image. Report an error in the passage at 1:38:53 Highlight the passage at 1:38:53

1:39:07 It's like our mind is filling out the data of a flower because we see flower even if we can't see all the parts now at this point. We see some of the petals. Sometimes we only see part of a petal and we still label flower or I might just see the outline. Charlie coming, and I might go, oh, that's Charlie. Of course, we've done that. We've been incorrect, too, right? But we still see, like, part of something, and we still will label. And actually, what this does is actually, you know, you can think about it in terms of a human body. Report an error in the passage at 1:39:07 Highlight the passage at 1:39:07

1:39:47 I'm just thinking about... Something else that has been created through causes and conditions is a human body. But at what point is something a human? You know what I mean? If I lose my arm, am I still a human? Does it have to be something with two arms? Clearly this comes up a lot. People lose a limb. Are they still human? Report an error in the passage at 1:39:47 Highlight the passage at 1:39:47

1:40:05 I think we would all agree that they are. Even if they lost all of their limbs, they're still human. At what point are they still human? At what point do we make them a human? If they lose their mind at all their parts, are they still human? You know, it's sort of like at what point, and this is not, I'm not asking a question that can be answered, this is a question for you to think about. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:05 Highlight the passage at 1:40:05

1:40:29 There is a meditation where you can actually envision your own, like all the different parts of yourself just sort of breaking off and just dissolving. At what point do you stop being you, you know? If you didn't have your body, would you still be you? All the different parts. So if we start thinking about how do we work with this information, the class is nearly over and I just want to get to some of the essential points. Report an error in the passage at 1:40:29 Highlight the passage at 1:40:29

1:41:04 The main one is if we start thinking about even just being open to the idea that it's my karma that forces me to see this as a flower or it's my karma to see the screaming boss. It's negative. Or it's my karma to see the delicious cake is delicious. And it's not something inherent from the side of the thing. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:04 Highlight the passage at 1:41:04

1:41:23 Then that means I can change it. It doesn't mean I can change it at the moment. It doesn't mean as the screaming boss is screaming that I can see him as a Manjushri giving me a teaching. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:23 Highlight the passage at 1:41:23

1:41:35 But I can recognize the wisdom of what's happening. I can use this understanding of karma and emptiness and go, wait a second. I may not be able to do it in that moment. As he's screaming at me, you have to be patient with yourself. As he's screaming at me, I might not be able to remember it, but I might be able to keep from yelling back, which is huge because now I'm not perpetuating it, right? Report an error in the passage at 1:41:35 Highlight the passage at 1:41:35

1:41:58 Because that's usually what happens is when negative things happen to us, we respond negatively, and so we keep ourselves in this cycle. If we can use any amount of wisdom to just not... How is it that Rubina said it the other night? Zip your lip and keep your hands to yourself. Zip your lip and keep your hands to yourself. Report an error in the passage at 1:41:58 Highlight the passage at 1:41:58

1:42:20 That's the first level. If you can do that, you're going to keep from creating the negative karma that's going to keep you perpetuating this cycle over and over. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:20 Highlight the passage at 1:42:20

1:42:31 But eventually you can get to the point while he's screaming at you to actually just go, wow. With wisdom to actually see, I created this situation. And you're not taking it so personally then. This is simply a negative karma ripening and you are receiving that negative karma and he's no longer this monster. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:31 Highlight the passage at 1:42:31

1:42:56 He's simply this, you know, basically color, shapes and decibels. That's all, you know, and it's just coming at you and it's just this karma ripening that you have created. So it keeps things from being so emotionally charged. It's hard, though, and the way one teacher described it is at first you'll remember it, you know, a couple of days later. Report an error in the passage at 1:42:56 Highlight the passage at 1:42:56

1:43:21 And you'll be really happy that you remembered it a couple days later because that's a huge improvement on stewing about it for 15 years, you know, which is what we do currently. And then you remember it, it gets closer, then you remember it, you know, that night. You know, especially if you create a space in a nightly practice where you're looking over your day and you're thinking about the day and then you remember it. And then you remember it when you go to the bathroom after he screams at you. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:21 Highlight the passage at 1:43:21

1:43:47 And then you remember it on the hall. In the hall on the way to the bathroom. And then you remember it as you're turning away from him and then finally you'll be able to remember it in the moment that he's screaming. And it takes a while. Each of those takes a while. But what they end up doing is changing your entire existence. Report an error in the passage at 1:43:47 Highlight the passage at 1:43:47

1:44:07 It sounds very small. They sound like baby steps. But the reality is that you can... change your entire world and karma and emptiness is what allows you It's as simple as that. So it's incredibly profound. It keeps us from holding on so tightly. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:07 Highlight the passage at 1:44:07

1:44:43 So believing that this thing is so solid and impermanent and inherently. Anyway. Excuse me. Report an error in the passage at 1:44:43 Highlight the passage at 1:44:43

1:45:07 Sorry. Oh, Report an error in the passage at 1:45:07 Highlight the passage at 1:45:07

1:45:18 well done. And you paused and thought about impermanence. Oh, that's great. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:18 Highlight the passage at 1:45:18

1:45:28 Again, let me just shed a little tear. No, I have them. That doesn't help. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:28 Highlight the passage at 1:45:28

1:45:37 Well, I'm just moved by this teaching on impermanence. I'm so sorry. You were seeing the impermanence of the teacher. Let me just blow my nose into the mic. For the listening audience at home, that you can feel a part of this moment. Oh, God. Anyway, what we end up doing, they say actually just... Opening your mind to these ideas even just a little bit creates a crack in cyclic existence. Just the beginning of it ending. Report an error in the passage at 1:45:37 Highlight the passage at 1:45:37

1:46:14 So it's actually quite profound. Why don't I ask questions? And then we'll just do, I think actually we should end. I was going to do the meditation, that's your assignment. If anybody would like me to, we could do that and you could stay, but otherwise we can end with a dedication. Why don't we ask questions first? Report an error in the passage at 1:46:14 Highlight the passage at 1:46:14

1:46:41 Conditions are everything else. Conditions are a multitude of all the variables that allow something to ripen. Report an error in the passage at 1:46:41 Highlight the passage at 1:46:41

1:47:02 I think I need about 24 hours of sleep. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:02 Highlight the passage at 1:47:02

1:47:08 Conditions are all of the various variables that allow. For example, if you're thinking about what conditions allow a seed to ripen in the physical world. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:08 Highlight the passage at 1:47:08

1:47:18 The cause would probably be what kind of seed it is to begin with, right? The cause would probably be the basis of that apple seed, for example. The conditions would be everything else. So the field, whether or not the soil was good soil, whether or not you had enough warmth. And whether or not you had enough moisture, whether or not you had enough manure or other nutrients in the soil, whether or not it rained for 40 days or whether or not it didn't rain ever, you know, all those different variables. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:18 Highlight the passage at 1:47:18

1:47:54 Whether or not it was in too shallow or too deep of all those things. And so with a karmic seed, it's the same. So it's all those different variables. Because we have had karmic seeds in us that haven't ripened yet that we created many, many lifetimes ago. So what will cause those things to ripen? You know, sometimes people say, oh, I don't have a problem with fill in the blank. I don't have a problem with jealousy. Report an error in the passage at 1:47:54 Highlight the passage at 1:47:54

1:48:17 I don't have a problem with anger. I don't have a problem with whatever. And then all of a sudden an object arises and suddenly that person has this huge jealousy or whatever. And it's just because the conditions came together for that karma to ripen. Yeah. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:48:17 Highlight the passage at 1:48:17

1:48:37 Yeah. I have Report an error in the passage at 1:48:37 Highlight the passage at 1:48:37

1:48:46 a question. You know, sometimes doing so well, and then you just meet someone, and you're nice, Robin. I'm going to just think about these things. And then somebody just shows up and just, it's the evil Robin that comes out. And I can't even stop it. And then when it comes out, it's like, why did I say that to this person? And yet, it just, every time, what's that? Report an error in the passage at 1:48:46 Highlight the passage at 1:48:46

1:49:16 Is that karma? Well, there's a couple ways to look at that. One would be that person could be a Buddha trying to help you because you think you're done with anger or whatever and they're like, no, wait a second, actually. This little thing is there and I could poke that button and then you have something to work with because when those incidents arise, it's like this amazing teaching. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:16 Highlight the passage at 1:49:16

1:49:42 So you can take it that way and be grateful like, oh, Rubina is actually very good at that. If stuff comes out and suddenly, like, I remember one time I was having this period where I would just get angry at everything and I was like, I never get angry. She's like, oh, that's wonderful. That's so great, you know? And the reality is it is because then I can work with it because otherwise I might think I don't have a problem with anger and then, you know, and so then it's useful to show that I do. Report an error in the passage at 1:49:42 Highlight the passage at 1:49:42

1:50:10 So there are a lot of ways, like with the mind training teachings, that you can work with that situation. But yeah, ultimately it is karma. It's also possible that it is a holy being trying to show you something. And I wouldn't discount that. It is possible. And if you meet your teacher, it's very possible that it's your teacher in some way, working through this person. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:10 Highlight the passage at 1:50:10

1:50:35 And I know that sounds woo-woo, but it's possible. And the next thing is, oh my god, I hope not. But the thing is, is that they can see you all the time anyway, so it's okay. It's not like they can only see you when you're being good, Robin. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:35 Highlight the passage at 1:50:35

1:50:53 Yeah, but for the most part, on a conventional, on a sort of more standard way, then it's just negative karma right there. Report an error in the passage at 1:50:53 Highlight the passage at 1:50:53

1:51:03 Yeah, yeah. But you can still learn from it. I mean, I look how quickly, even just like if you see it coming out, I actually think it's a good step and it is troubling and we want ourselves to be like wonderful immediately. But that's sort of like wanting to be the concert pianist when we're just learning the scales and we've just started, you know, my English country garden, which is the song I played when I was in second grade. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:03 Highlight the passage at 1:51:03

1:51:29 We're just able to do that and we want to be able to play in Carnegie Hall. And the reality is we've got a ways to go. But I actually do think it's a really good step to be able to see it coming out, almost like you're observing it, like it's not you. I've had that happen many times. And you're angry, like you focus on the negative, which is I don't, of course, want to yell at somebody or I don't want to, whatever it is, whatever kind of negative speech or whatever it is. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:29 Highlight the passage at 1:51:29

1:51:55 But the reality is what a light year difference from not even noticing it at all and actually staying in an upset state for days about it, still not seeing that you had any role in it. It's actually hugely different. I think it's kind of an interesting... Transition to be at that point where you can just observe it as a deluded mind at work. It's like, wow, as you're doing it, it's actually kind of interesting. Report an error in the passage at 1:51:55 Highlight the passage at 1:51:55

1:52:26 It's weird, but I think it's an improvement, I think. Yeah, yeah, sure. Anything else? Yeah, Olivier. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:26 Highlight the passage at 1:52:26

1:52:40 I'm not sure how to phrase that, but now that we have discovered kind of the emptiness of things, you know, that what we see really exists. What about that karmic essence that goes through lives? Is it also just an illusion? It doesn't exist the way we think it does too. I think at this point most of us still think we have a soul. I think most of us, even those of us that have been studying for a while, still think that there's some sort of inherently existing me. Report an error in the passage at 1:52:40 Highlight the passage at 1:52:40

1:53:10 So even when I think about myself as a fox or a cat, somehow it's like it's still Chokyi. Still inherently Chokyi there, like just having this kind of like a costume on or something. Like I haven't gotten it yet. How totally subtle this thing is that goes from life to life. I haven't quite gotten it there. So I think that this is just a step towards us getting that. It's so incredibly subtle how it is. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:10 Highlight the passage at 1:53:10

1:53:39 But in reality, the end result of all this is that it should be thoroughly freeing. That we are not stuck. In this anything, we're not stuck in anything. Actually, everything changes from moment to moment. So actually, there should, there eventually, if there doesn't initially, eventually there should be a bliss involved. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:39 Highlight the passage at 1:53:39

1:53:59 It's quite blissful to just be able to let go of all these things I think of as me and all these things I think of as my life and my condition and my blah, blah, my friends, my family, my blah, blah. None of it exists the way I thought. None of it exists that way. You know, so actually there's just like a, it's almost like you're free floating, which is scary at first. It's a little scary at first. It could be scary at first. Report an error in the passage at 1:53:59 Highlight the passage at 1:53:59

1:54:26 They say actually when Lama Tsongkhapa led this meditation one time, one of his disciples was so freaked out by the loss of an eye that he thought existed that way, that he grabbed his shirt, like what's left. And they actually say that that's a really normal response to have this sort of jolt of like, well, what is there? Report an error in the passage at 1:54:26 Highlight the passage at 1:54:26

1:54:47 But it's not like they're taking, it's not like Buddha is taking away something that was there. He's simply pointing out that it never was and never could have been there and that we've been in this sort of fantasy for lifetime after lifetime. But then we come back to that nihilism. What is it for? Yeah, so that's where you have to, that's where this dependent arising. Report an error in the passage at 1:54:47 Highlight the passage at 1:54:47

1:55:11 It helps you sort of ground it a little bit more. That things arise based on causes and conditions. That things arise based on causes and conditions and parts. That things arise based on causes and conditions and labels. And a mind labeling them. So things do exist, just not the way we thought. Karma still functions. Things function. Just because they're empty doesn't mean that things don't function. Yeah, it's tricky. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:11 Highlight the passage at 1:55:11

1:55:41 Karma functions totally because things are empty. And it's because of karma that we can become Buddhas. Or that we can even just improve our lives if we just aim for the shorter goal. And it's probably also because we have to use labels. Report an error in the passage at 1:55:41 Highlight the passage at 1:55:41

1:56:00 At this point, yes, exactly. Ultimately, emptiness is something that is impossible to describe. But we have to describe it because that's how we can learn about it. At this point our mind is totally conceptual. So it's like you have to understand it. Before you can have a direct perception of emptiness, you have to have an indirect or inferential understanding of it, which is based on the intellect. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:00 Highlight the passage at 1:56:00

1:56:26 So we have to approach something that's non-conceptual with concepts. But we have to, because that's where we are. So that's how we get closer to it. Yeah, yeah, sure. Report an error in the passage at 1:56:26 Highlight the passage at 1:56:26

1:56:40 Does anyone want me to lead the meditation on Dependent Arising? Dean does. Dean wants a private meditation. Anybody else? Yeah? A few? Some people need to go. Why don't we... Oh, I want to make an announcement. Does anybody not have liberation in the palm of your hand but want it? Report an error in the passage at 1:56:40 Highlight the passage at 1:56:40

1:57:03 Yeah? Our winner is... Tim is giving this away. And if you continue with the Discovering Buddhism series, there's always reading. Every single class has reading from this book. It's a really good, like if you have to go to prison, this is the one to take with you, which of course we hope that doesn't happen, but if it does, call us because we have a great group downstairs. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:03 Highlight the passage at 1:57:03

1:57:30 It'll just be inherently labeled prison. You can make it into your meditation cell. Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:30 Highlight the passage at 1:57:30

1:57:36 But this book is great. If you guys haven't gotten it yet, and if you decide that this is a path that you want to explore more deeply, this is a really useful book. It looks totally different now. I think there's a completely different, this is the hardback version too, so it'll last you for many years. But, there you go. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:36 Highlight the passage at 1:57:36

1:57:57 But, yeah, it goes very deeply into a lot of these teachings. You've been reading, have you been, no, you've been reading Lama Rinpoche. Report an error in the passage at 1:57:57 Highlight the passage at 1:57:57

1:58:07 Yeah, this is Pabanka Rinpoche's commentary on the Lam Rimchenmo, which he gave this 24-day teaching in 1921, I think it is. And his disciple, Trijong Rinpoche, who was one of His Holiness' tutors, wrote it all down. And this is what this is. And even in his lifetime, it was a popular book, which shows you what Tibet was like at that point. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:07 Highlight the passage at 1:58:07

1:58:30 You know, this was like a bestseller. But it's a really, really good book, a really in-depth book. Kind of is a bit much at times, so you kind of have to measure it out. But it's still like one of the best sources that we have of a really traditional teaching if you can't, as you said, have an actual living teacher because Geshe-la goes to the same detail in his teachings. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:30 Highlight the passage at 1:58:30

1:58:56 And actually when I pray that we have the karma for him to... Teach Shantideva and hopefully Lamrim Chamo again. He goes to that same level of line by line by line, explanations that you just don't get anymore in the West. And we have this teaching recorded for us, so this is an incredible resource. And that's why I think they ask that if you are trying to do this class for certification, that you do. Report an error in the passage at 1:58:56 Highlight the passage at 1:58:56

1:59:23 Read this, because it is really, but it is a bit much at times, so you just measure it out, read a little bit each day, rather than trying to read it from start to finish the way Tim did. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:23 Highlight the passage at 1:59:23

1:59:33 Certain kind of minds. Anyway, let's dedicate, and then you guys can have your homework, and then those who want to stay, I can lead them in this meditation, that'll be your next. The next meditation is Venema Rubina's One on Dependent Arising, which is actually very... Very fun. It's a cool one. And you can, I think, hear her voice through it. Also, quick reminder before we dedicate that Tuesday we're starting a new class on death and rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 1:59:33 Highlight the passage at 1:59:33

2:00:02 Right? Yeah. And Thursday next week after our last class will be all about karma. So those two classes are starting in the next two weeks. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:02 Highlight the passage at 2:00:02

2:00:15 Oh, also, tomorrow morning Tenzin Lama is going to teach the Sunday class and he's going to teach it about... Basically, what is that? So it's just sort of like, what is that butter lamp? Why do you have these on the altar? What is a stupa? Why are some Buddhists angry and some not? It's just all those kind of questions. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:15 Highlight the passage at 2:00:15

2:00:40 So we're going to see how he does with that. So we'll see. I promised him only like five people would come. So I think we should fill the room. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:40 Highlight the passage at 2:00:40

2:00:51 Tomorrow morning at 10. So yeah, when Geshel's gone, we're having other people teach. I think Emily's going to teach on anger next week. Report an error in the passage at 2:00:51 Highlight the passage at 2:00:51

2:01:02 Okay, so just take a moment with all these ideas all flowing around in our head. We just let them all settle and begin to permeate our hard little minds, Report an error in the passage at 2:01:02 Highlight the passage at 2:01:02

2:01:17 soften them. And may everything that we learned here today... And any understandings, any insights or even just beginnings of understandings and insights, may they become the seed of each of us actually understanding emptiness in this life and one step beyond being able to directly perceive it so that we can liberate ourselves and then ultimately liberate all beings from saṃsāra. Report an error in the passage at 2:01:17 Highlight the passage at 2:01:17

2:02:00 So did everybody get the presentation topics and page 8 of that? Yeah, you guys are all here. Yeah, okay. Good. So here's the homework. Maybe you want to, Charlie? Report an error in the passage at 2:02:00 Highlight the passage at 2:02:00

2:02:19 And those Report an error in the passage at 2:02:19 Highlight the passage at 2:02:19

2:02:33 who need to leave can leave. And then we'll just do. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:33 Highlight the passage at 2:02:33

2:02:43 It's okay. No, we'll go ahead and, yeah, oops. That would have been attractive. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:43 Highlight the passage at 2:02:43

2:02:51 We'll leave it, and I'll just turn it off. Thanks, you guys. Report an error in the passage at 2:02:51 Highlight the passage at 2:02:51

2:03:03 You have to go, too? Okay. Okay, so we won't do this very long. We'll just do a shortened version of it, but maybe 10, 15. So just make sure that your body feels comfortable to start. If you need to move to a chair, that's okay too. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:03 Highlight the passage at 2:03:03

2:03:25 And just allow your mind to calm down. And you can maybe focus on your breath for a minute or two. Report an error in the passage at 2:03:25 Highlight the passage at 2:03:25

2:04:02 So according to the Buddha, all of our sufferings and fears are rooted in this utterly irrational yet deeply held belief in a solid. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:02 Highlight the passage at 2:04:02

2:04:14 Real things existing out there in and of themselves, independent of us and everything else. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:14 Highlight the passage at 2:04:14

2:04:27 As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, we live in a world made up by our own minds. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:27 Highlight the passage at 2:04:27

2:04:36 This delusional way of seeing the world and ourselves is so pervasive that initially it's impossible to detect. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:36 Highlight the passage at 2:04:36

2:04:50 Lama Tsongkhapa says that the most skillful way to loosen the grip of this fantasy and eventually bring our minds into sync with how things actually are. Report an error in the passage at 2:04:50 Highlight the passage at 2:04:50

2:05:01 Which will eliminate all of our suffering and fear. Is to contemplate dependent arising. That's why this is called the king of logic to prove emptiness. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:01 Highlight the passage at 2:05:01

2:05:17 To prove in other words that things are empty of the type of existence that our hallucinating minds think that they have. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:17 Highlight the passage at 2:05:17

2:05:29 So start with your own body. It's what we believe most is having something real from its own side. It's what we cling to most, think about most, take care of most. Identify with most. It's the one thing to our hallucinating minds that is definitely me. Report an error in the passage at 2:05:29 Highlight the passage at 2:05:29

2:05:57 But think, how is it my body? Report an error in the passage at 2:05:57 Highlight the passage at 2:05:57

2:06:03 It's come into being and continues to exist in dependence upon countless causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:03 Highlight the passage at 2:06:03

2:06:13 We can't find my body among any one of those causes and conditions. Yet it's nothing other than those causes and conditions. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:13 Highlight the passage at 2:06:13

2:06:31 It can be said that everything in this universe before this body came into being is a valid cause and conditions for the existence of this body. Report an error in the passage at 2:06:31 Highlight the passage at 2:06:31

2:06:48 I think my body began with the egg and sperm of my kind mother and father. So where is my body? Report an error in the passage at 2:06:48 Highlight the passage at 2:06:48

2:07:00 Without the mother and father's parents, there would be no mother and father. And without the mother and father, there would be no my body. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:00 Highlight the passage at 2:07:00

2:07:14 Where is my body apart from these beginningless mothers and fathers? Report an error in the passage at 2:07:14 Highlight the passage at 2:07:14

2:07:28 Without my mother's womb, the egg and sperm would not join and develop. Without the food my mother ate every day, the egg and sperm would not grow into a fetus. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:28 Highlight the passage at 2:07:28

2:07:42 Where is my body apart from all the food she ate? Report an error in the passage at 2:07:42 Highlight the passage at 2:07:42

2:07:53 My body is nothing other than a mountain of carrots and potatoes and chicken and bread. Report an error in the passage at 2:07:53 Highlight the passage at 2:07:53

2:08:03 the earth, the gardener, sun, the water. The fertilizer. There would be no carrots. Without the carrots, there would be no mother. Without the mother, there would be no my body. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:03 Highlight the passage at 2:08:03

2:08:21 It does not exist. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:21 Highlight the passage at 2:08:21

2:08:29 My body would not exist without the clothes my mother wore to keep her warm in the winter. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:29 Highlight the passage at 2:08:29

2:08:37 The clothes would not exist without the sheep who provided the wool, the sheep shearers, the sheep shearers' mothers, the owners of the sheep, the people who processed the wool, the people who turned it into cloth. The truck drivers who took the cloth to the factory, the clothes designers, the tailors, the sewing machines, the designers of the sewing machines, the shops that sold the clothes, the people who made the racks, and so on. Report an error in the passage at 2:08:37 Highlight the passage at 2:08:37

2:09:11 Where is my body apart from all of these? It cannot be found. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:11 Highlight the passage at 2:09:11

2:09:22 My body would not exist without the cotton bushes, the people who planted the cotton, the farmers who nourished the cotton bushes. The people who picked the cotton. The people who drove the trucks that took the cotton to be processed. The architect of the factory where the cotton was turned into cloth. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:22 Highlight the passage at 2:09:22

2:09:43 The people who turned the cotton into cloth. The people who dyed the cloth. The people who made the dye. The person who designed the packet that contained the dye. The printer who printed the packet. The people who made the printing machine. Report an error in the passage at 2:09:43 Highlight the passage at 2:09:43

2:10:05 Where is my body apart from all of these causes and conditions? It does not exist. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:05 Highlight the passage at 2:10:05

2:10:19 My body would not exist without the doctors and nurses who helped it come out of the womb, the soft cloth that protected it and kept it warm, the crib in which it was put to sleep, Report an error in the passage at 2:10:19 Highlight the passage at 2:10:19

2:10:33 the milk from my mother's breasts, the food that my mother ate that transformed into the milk that nourished my body, the nurses who checked this body while it was sleeping. To make sure it did not suffocate. The heating in the hospital that kept the body warm. The electricity that kept the heaters burning. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:33 Highlight the passage at 2:10:33

2:10:58 The electricians who did the wiring in the hospital. The colleges they went to to learn to become electricians. The teachers in those colleges. Report an error in the passage at 2:10:58 Highlight the passage at 2:10:58

2:11:12 Where is my body apart from all these countless causes and conditions? It cannot be found anywhere. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:12 Highlight the passage at 2:11:12

2:11:26 My body is nothing other than all the food I ate as a child. The milk and rice and peas and lamb and apples and eggs. My body would not exist without the food, the farmers, Report an error in the passage at 2:11:26 Highlight the passage at 2:11:26

2:11:42 the people who trucked the vegetables to the market, the people who sold the vegetables, the people who made the shelves at the market that held the vegetables off the ground, the people who made the stalls at the market, the people who made the shop where they sold the lamb, the person who killed the lamb, the person who packaged it. Report an error in the passage at 2:11:42 Highlight the passage at 2:11:42

2:12:04 Put it in a refrigerator. The people who made the refrigerator. The people who made the factory where the refrigerator was made. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:04 Highlight the passage at 2:12:04

2:12:16 Where is my body apart from all of this? Report an error in the passage at 2:12:16 Highlight the passage at 2:12:16

2:12:24 My body does not exist without the mountains of morality practiced in a previous life that is its main karmic cause. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:24 Highlight the passage at 2:12:24

2:12:35 Morality could not have been practiced without the kindness of the gurus who showed the path to the person in the previous life. Without the kindness of the Dharma friends. The books in which the Dharma was printed, the people who printed the Dharma books, the person who designed the typeface used in the Dharma books, the people who made the paper, the people who chopped down the trees from which the paper was made, the previous parents, the food the previous mother ate to nourish her body so that the body in her womb could grow, so that the previous person could survive to practice morality. Report an error in the passage at 2:12:35 Highlight the passage at 2:12:35

2:13:18 In order to create the cause to have my body in this life, it's Report an error in the passage at 2:13:18 Highlight the passage at 2:13:18

2:13:28 clear that there is no my body apart from these beginningless causes and conditions. So what is there to cling to? Just Report an error in the passage at 2:13:28 Highlight the passage at 2:13:28

2:13:52 take a moment to dedicate through understanding all of the conditions that go into each one of us. May it help us loosen this clinging, grasping to everything, not just our own bodies, but every single thing we come into contact with. Including experiences of mind, Report an error in the passage at 2:13:52 Highlight the passage at 2:13:52

2:14:20 so that we can actually benefit ourselves and others while we have this life. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:20 Highlight the passage at 2:14:20

2:14:43 I think you can hear Benaborvina's voice in that very much. The mountains of carrots and potatoes and peas. Report an error in the passage at 2:14:43 Highlight the passage at 2:14:43

2:15:15 No. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:15 Highlight the passage at 2:15:15

2:15:22 Yeah, let's do it. Report an error in the passage at 2:15:22 Highlight the passage at 2:15:22